On Social Media, Public Opinion, Chief Justice Ramana's Warning To Judges

Judges should not be swayed by the "emotional pitch of public opinion which is amplified by social media," Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said on Wednesday at a function held in Delhi. Judges, he added, have to keep in mind that the amplified noise does not always reflect what is right.

The new media tools, with their "enormous amplifying ability," are "incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, good and bad, and the real and fake," the Chief Justice said.

So "media trials cannot be guiding factors in deciding cases," he added while delivering the Justice PD Desai Memorial Lecture on "Rule of law" online.

There is a lot of discussion about "pressures from the Executive", Justice Ramana said. "But it is also imperative to start a discourse as how social media trends can affect institutions and this should not be understood to mean that Judges and Judiciary are completely disassociated with what is going on," he added.

Underscoring the need for complete judicial freedom, he said, "For the judiciary to apply checks on governmental power and actions, it has to have complete freedom. The judiciary cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly, by the legislature or the executive, or else the rule of law will become illusory".

All the three organs of the state -- the executive, legislature and judiciary -- are "equal repositories of the constitutional trust", the Chief Justice of India said.

Reminding the judiciary that its role and the scope are limited, he said they only "pertain to the facts placed before it (the judiciary). "Its limitation calls for other organs to resume responsibilities of upholding constitutional values and ensuring justice in the first place with the judiciary acting as an important check," he added.